Saturday, November 17, 2007

There's more video of the RCMP Taser Killing of Robert Dziekanski, still in the hands of the investigators (RCMP, I suppose), which has not gone public.

[Larry] Berg [, president and CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority,] said 14 security cameras monitor the area, and the footage from those cameras has been turned over to investigators.

The RCMP has probably been studying these tapes like crazy, to see how they can spin their own story in order to get away with manslaughter, but this time it might be harder to so than ever. The release of Paul Pritchard's video has given the whole world a good view on what went wrong, and most people agree that actions of the four policemen and their superiors were sub-standard (to say the least).

Vancouver Police recently released original surveillance footage of a 2005 Hells Angels incident downtown Vancouver. Expect some delay but demand from authorities that the surveillance footage of the RCMP Taser Killing WILL be shown too. Fair is fair.

4 comments:

While I agree with the comment you left on my blog that serious neglect was shown on the part of the RCMP in their use of tasers. My discussion was not trying to shift the blame from the police's mistakes. My point was that the Vancouver airport staff's negligence/incompetence created an unacceptable situation. Whether the story ended in his death, a stint in the disturbed ward of the hospital, or a reunion with his mother, the airport's services neglect drove a man to become erratic. Had he not died, this story never would have even made it to the news, yet this type of neglect for people we should be welcoming into our country is too commonplace.

I agree that this killing could have been prevented by the staff: there's obviously a "problem" at the Vancouver airport that needs to be addressed because it wouldn't have been necessary for security to call on police.

We know now that calling on police is not without danger. The RCMP's only way to solve such a situation seems to be to taser someone into compliance first, ask questions later.

The next time I see a similar situation, the RCMP is the last one I will call.

It's sad to see we cannot expect a more humane and compassionate assistance from our national police force.The taser seems to have replaced good policing.

The Globe and Mail by Norman SPECTOR about the Vancouver Airport incident which you might find interesting.

Norman Spector has the ability to keep an open mind and change his position upon learning more of the facts....do you?

********F) Shame on me for jumping to conclusionsTHE DEATH OF ROBERT DZIEKANSKINORMAN SPECTORDecember 3, 2007Two days before Paul Pritchard's recording of the tragic end of Robert Dziekanski's life wasreleased to the public, I spent the evening with Mr. Pritchard and a CBC crew that was preparinga report for The National. My role was to view the 10-minute recording and, as the CBC camerarolled, to comment on what I was seeing. Then, reporter Darrow McIntyre - who was seatedbeside me throughout - asked questions for about half an hour, before he and his colleagueshastily packed up and made a dash for the last ferry to Vancouver.Late Wednesday afternoon, shortly before the segment was to hit the airwaves in the Maritimes,the CBC producer called to inform me that time constraints had required them to delete my threeminutesegment of their report. I was not upset, though I didn't relish having to explain mydisappearance to friends and acquaintances who had seen me in the program promo the eveningbefore. In retrospect, however, this is one time that I'm actually thankful to have ended up on thecutting-room floor.- 11 -Viewing the recording that evening, my reaction was pretty much the same as that of mostCanadians who have seen it subsequently. Mr. Dziekanski did not appear aggressive or to be athreat to any of the bystanders. Rather, he seemed to be cowering in fear, and, as I alsoobserved on camera, Canadians don't treat animals the way he was treated. We're a wealthycountry, and the destruction of a computer, while regrettable, is certainly not worth a man's life.Over all, then, I was left with a mixture of sadness and disgust at what had transpired at theVancouver airport. As the crew was departing, the CBC producer and I agreed that the RCMP'sadmonition to place the recording in context sounded silly, as it had not been edited and therecould only be one interpretation of what I had just seen.I now believe I should have been more cautious in my evaluation.Mr. Pritchard, after some heroic efforts on his part, had only that day recovered a DVD of hisrecording from the RCMP, and it would not play on my home unit. It did, however, play on mylaptop computer, which is how I learned that he had not used a video camera to record the eventsat Vancouver International Airport. The limited memory of his still camera explains why wesee only about 10 minutes of what Mr. Pritchard had witnessed over six hours.With this knowledge, I should have picked up on Mr. Pritchard's comment that the situationhad been a lot scarier as it was unfolding. And, I might also have summoned the courage toask why he had not tried to help, as one woman had - a question that even professionaljournalists are often asked by the public in similar circumstances. Instead, in response to severalversions of Mr. McIntyre's question regarding RCMP actions, I kept repeating that the four goodsizedofficers must not have wanted to get their hair messed or their noses scratched - the onlyexplanation I could think of for their decision to use the taser in the circumstances shown on therecording.It was two weeks later that I learned from a caller to the Bill Good Show that Mr. Dziekanski was6 feet 9 inches tall, which had not been widely reported. In these circumstances, I would askmyself what the airport security people told the RCMP when they called for assistance, and whatwas in the minds of the officers who sped to the airport to deal with the situation.It must not be an easy time to be a Mountie these days; several RCMP officers have fallen in theline of duty recently, while the organization itself has been going through a bad patch and itsreputation has deservedly taken a beating over the past several years.Still, RCMP officers are entitled to the same legal protections that we afford in British Columbiato, say, a man like Robert Pickton. Frankly, I'm ashamed of myself for having rushed to judgmentof the officers involved in the death of Mr. Dziekanski, before the requisite investigations hearfrom them and from all the bystanders who witnessed the full events that evening along with Mr.Pritchard.

Norman Spector did write his initial story with an "open mind". Unfortunately he fell back into his traditional neo-con law and order mode; and that conservative mode is as far from an open-mind mode as one can get.